A Changed Path
by Rosa Clearwater
Summary: "This is utter chaos!" A change in Destiny. A change in the plan that would have wrecked the lives of fans and characters.


This was a bloody nightmare! A stupid bloody nightmare!

Giles thought darkly to himself as he parried another deadly blow from the skeleton. Sure it had been slightly hilarious, and yet rather irksome, when the bunnies began popping over his magic shop. But then she had to go and summon this mad skeleton of some kind. Who of course knew how to fight.

"This is utter chaos!" He shouted over the noise of everything. "Get a different book!" He yelled, and grunted as he blocked another blow. The fight with the skeleton was one he was surprised to see evenly matched out. Rupert hadn't known where all this muscle memory was coming from, he'd find out later at the hospital, however, he was pleased to know it was saving his life. "But that book down do you hear!" He demanded. But Anya didn't stop using it, conjuring more bunnies –that appeared on the table—which made her accidentally drop the book in fear. Giles struck the skeleton with his sword, which had no effect, and stepped to the side to avoid another swipe. This time his reflexes weren't fast enough, and the blade grazed his front and slashed his jacket. He heard Anya shove all the bunnies off the counter, and it distracted the skeleton enough that Giles could glance at the book Anya dropped. He chose the first spell he saw.

And the annoying result was his fault this time. Another sword handling skeleton came out of thin air, but both skeletons were distracted by each other. Giles snuck behind the counter, picking up the book as he went around the corner. She grabbed the book from him, too stubborn to stop using it. Another spell later, and a loud roar could be heard echoing around the shop. The two fighting skeletons had been devoured by some sort of lion demon.

"Look what you've done you lunatic woman!" He hissed to her, reaching for another book behind the counter.

"Don't blame me, you snobby, snotty, thinks-he's-_so_-great kind of jerk." And he was still ignoring her! " And I feel compelled to take some on you!" She watched him hard, and he knocked into a stone statue of dragon behind him. It was a small whack, but still powerful enough to give him a mild concussion.

"God, no wonder I'm leaving you!" He blurted it out without thinking.

"What?" She asked in disbelief.

"Look," He began and reached into his jacket to take out the ticket. But he only felt a tear in the cloth, and no paper. They looked over the counter, just in time to see the lion demon eat his one way ticket out of their engagement. Both their jaws dropped and she glared at him, whacking him once more with the book. He let out an exclamation of pain as they retreated back to under the counter –before the demon noticed them.

"Of all the nerve! You were gonna leave us? Without your money!" And he looked back at her, as she began to remove her ring to throw it away.

"Don't." He warned "Whatever that thing is out there, it will devour it. And I refuse to pay for it!" For the first time that hour she listened to him. She settled for whacking him once more as he looked through the book he was holding. Suddenly he let out a gasp as he found what he was looking for.

"_Fatas venga mata warei." _He muttered in some language unknown to her. The demon roared once more, as it thundered above them. Slowly, they waited a few seconds.

Silence.

Rupert and Anya slowly rose above the cashier area and scanned around them. Nothing. Anya immediately left the safety of being behind the counter and walked forward.

"Oh… that's better." Giles muttered to himself. "Thank goodness. I'm so sorry, dear." He apologized. While there was a pain throbbing in the back of his head, he did feel remotely sorry for all of this. Part of the shop looked slightly destroyed, but nothing too bad that they couldn't repair it.

"No, Rupy I'm sorry. You were right." She said and he looked at her in slight disbelief. "That was the wrong book." Disbelief turned into surprise. He thought she was apologizing for nearly giving him a concussion.

"Oh, um… Yes it was." He said with a little smile. "But I'm sti- still sorry."

"Don't leave me."

"Oh, Anya." He walked towards her, and they embraced kissing. It wasn't weird, but oddly felt…natural. And for the time being, he knew he couldn't leave them. But in seconds, they both opened their eyes as their memories came back. Immediately, they seemed to jump away from each other blushing furiously.

"Oh damn." He said, remembering the ticket that had been devoured. It would be a while before he could get another one. He grabbed the nearest broom and began sweeping up the remains of the skeletons.

"Well, this place certainly needs a good tidying." He hadn't realized Anya was wiping all traces of those _Evil_ bunnies away from the tables.

"Oh yes, yes." She agreed with him. They cleaned up the shop, blushing furiously and avoiding everyone else. They, of course, knew who created their "Memory Loss": Willow.

"You're not gonna leave us now, right?" Anya asked. She loved money, but she didn't like when everyone was upset. And everyone was upset when they knew Giles was planning on leaving.

Rupert thought about it long and hard. They heard a noise from the back and it seemed Xander, Dawn, Tara, and Willow had come back. Rupert studied the group, and noticed how distant Tara and Willow were, and how Willow was close to tears. He saw how Xander seemed burdened by the stress of all the drama, and how Dawn was cautious around everyone. Buffy and Spike entered through the front of the shop. He saw how unsure the lot of them were, how distrustful and hurt they were in total. And he knew he couldn't leave them in the middle of the mess he helped create, no matter how much he thought it would help.

"No." He muttered, stepping forward to give Buffy a big huge. She was shocked, but in the moment he did so they all realized he wasn't going to leave. Suddenly a little happiness filled the room. And the moments that past were a blurred, as injuries were tended too and people soon left the shop. But Giles realized something as he left the shop: He was not the hindrance that he thought he was.

And he certainly wasn't standing in the way.

**Don't own anything familiar . It may have been my first BtVS fanfic but I'm proud. Spelling mistakes are mine . And the reason for this fanfic is simple: I was watching **_**Tabula Rasa **_**and I wanted to spare myself from the heartbreak that always afterward.**


End file.
